Moondrop Space Travel Review - Can't believe it's $25! 😲
When I bought the Moondrop Space Travel, I didn’t really expect it to have much in terms of features or performance. It’s really cheap, just $25, and I bought it for very superficial reasons.
The game Starfield just came out and it just looked like something that ties in very well to the whole Space Odyssey theme which caught my attention. And why not? It’s not expensive at all, if I don’t like it, no harm done, still looks good on the shelf.
It doesn’t have multipoint pairing, or hi-res codec support like more expensive earbuds, but I am quite surprised at what it does have, like Active noise canceling, transparency, and touch controls. Its battery is rated up to 4 hours in the buds and up to 12 hours with case, and it has app support letting you customize its controls and sound… and anime girl voice prompts. (Hope my current waifu won’t mind.)
The buds have a typical stem design. There’s no lid, you just dock the buds in the case directly. Its charging port is at the bottom, and when using the buds in the real world its bluetooth connection seemed reliable, with no signal dropouts.
That being said, do I like its sound or it’s performance? And what are the issues I’ve encountered with it? Those are things that will be covered in this review.
Call quality
I thought its mic pickup was decent in quiet conditions, but not so great in noisy conditions because it wasn’t cutting much background noise. I honestly wasn’t expecting anything better considering the price. Listen to the samples here.
(Tested in both quiet and noisy conditions, using some really loud cafe style background noise, and some wind noise coming from a fan.)
Active Noise Canceling
But, in terms of active noise canceling, these are surprisingly effective. It may not be as effective as mid or top tier earbuds, but in the budget range it is definitely competitive. Listen to the samples here.
Transparency Mode
Its transparency mode is quite decent for the price. Ambient noise is amplified loudly, but it did have hiss, and it also doesn’t block sudden peaks in sound, like the ‘beep’ of the infrared scanner when checking out at the supermarket.
Sound Quality
In terms of sound, it has a rather flat profile in the bass and mids. So if you’re looking for thick, juicy bass or heavy mids, it’s not going to give you that. Rather, it’s more focused on delivering detail in the mids and vocals rather than bass extension. Although it’s worth saying that for certain types of music involving bass drops, you do still get a bit of thump.
It’s also quite bright in the high treble to the extent that certain instruments can sound a lot more glowy or bloomy compared to most other buds. Luckily it avoids sounding too sibilant in the upper mids, otherwise it would have sounded terrible to me. Here is a sound sample.
Best $25 I’ve spent?
I have to say that the Moondrop Space Travel is worth looking at for the value you’re getting at $25. These are the cheapest noise canceling buds I have ever reviewed, that has app support and actually looks like a collectible item.
That being said, here are some hiccups I’ve encountered, bearing in mind that many of them are just minor annoyances.
At first it can be a bit tricky removing the buds and putting it back, it needs a bit of care and practice.
Its EQ settings are also not that great. You’ve only got 3 EQ presets which, even after switching between them, I could barely tell the difference. Nor could I do anything about that 14khz peak which exaggerated shimmer in the highs (this annoys me after a while of sustained listening.)
It also takes a bit longer to switch to transparency mode and back to ANC because when you’re toggling through, it goes from ANC On, to ANC Off, then Transparency. There isn’t a setting in the app that lets you skip directly between transparency and ANC.
That, and the very basic app design which still has some of the prompts in Chinese, is probably why the app’s got a 1-star rating on the app store.
It’s also not very loud, about 10-20% softer than usual, so it needs to be at 70% volume for it to sound like 50% on other earbuds.
So while I can appreciate the value of it being so cheap considering the features and design, as of now the user experience just isn’t as polished as other budget brands, even if it’s got anime girl voice prompts. But maybe you’re like me and you’re not that fussy with something at this price. If so, you should check out the Moondrop Space Travel, a unique and collectible design.
If you want to check the latest prices of the Moondrop Space Travel, I’ve included links to its Amazon and Lazada pages below.
Amazon - https://amzn.to/3PdpIzN
Lazada - https://s.lazada.sg/s.bC0D4?cc
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